Friday, August 31, 2012

People stop in Victorville California 85 miles northeast of Los
Angeles because they have to see someone at one of its several prisons
(federal, state, county and city) or have prison-related business, or
because they’re hot and tired coming back from Las Vegas to Los Angeles
and the thought of a swimming pool and an air conditioned room seem
irresistible.

We book rooms so we can get to the prison early and spend more time
with Gerardo Hernandez. We know the way from Highway 15 west into
rolling desert hills from whence one sees a massive gray concrete
structure – the federal penitentiary complex.

We fill out the forms, pass through the X-ray machine, get patted
down by a guard, get our wrists stamped with indelible ink that shows up
under a scanner in the next room, and by 8:45 we are seated in the
Visiting room, with black and Latino wives and kids who are seeing
husbands and daddies.
Gerardo emerges; we hug and start talking. He told us that Martin Garbus, his lawyer, had filed a new writ (available at www.thecuban5.org)
declaring Gerardo’s trial violated basic law and the

Constitution, and
should be voided – freeing him and his comrades from their long
sentences.
Documents show, according to the brief, that the U.S. government paid
a host of Miami-based journalists to file negative stories on Gerardo
and his fellow defendants (The Cuban 5). These U.S. government paid-for
stories appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV and influenced
public opinion in the community, including jury members and their
families, the writ argues, and therefore calls into deep question
whether a fair trial in Miami was possible for the five accused men.

The brief states that the U.S. “government’s successful secret
subversion of the Miami print, radio, and television media to pursue a
conviction was unprecedented,” and “violated the integrity of the trial
and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.”

Garbus further argues that “The Government, through millions of
dollars of illegal payments and at least a thousand articles published
over a six-year period, interfered with the trial and persuaded the jury
to convict. The Government’s Response to this motion is factually
barren and legally incorrect. The conviction must now be vacated.”

In the lengthy brief, Garbus shows how journalists wrote and spoke
for news outlets for the sole purpose of painting a distorted picture of
what the defendants were doing, which was trying to prevent Miami-based
terrorism in Cuba, and instead, as Garbus’ brief shows, to portray them
as military spies trying to prepare south Florida for a military
invasion from Cuba.

The Miami Herald fired the journalists on the grounds they
had broken a basic code – taking money from the government to write
stories. The brief states that “Thomas Fiedler, the Executive Editor and
Vice President of The Miami Herald, when talking about the
monies paid to his staff members and members of other media entities by
the Government, said it was wrongful because it was “to carry out the
mission of the U.S. Government, a propaganda mission. It was wrong even
if it had not been secret.” It was secret because the government
officials knew it wrong and illegal.

Gerardo and four companions have served almost 14 years in federal
lock up for trying to stop right wing Miami thugs from bombing Havana.
In 1997, a series of bombs hit hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. One
tourist died and many Cuban workers in these establishments were
wounded. The bombings were orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles,
resident of Miami today, and financed by right wing exile money.

As we sat in the visiting room surrounded by mostly people of color,
with four guards watching us and the other visitors, we nibbled on
salted snacks from the vending machine (“prison gourmet”).
Gerardo told us about his time in “the hole,” for no bad behavior on
his part, but for his “protection”! He spoke of deprivation of the
routine monotony. “Look around,” he said, “you don’t see a lot of middle
class people here. There were none. Most of the prisoners were black or
Latino, plus one who Gerardo thought was a descendent of poor Okies.
All share a lack of money to hire good lawyers.

“I was transferred here from Lompoc in 2004 because Lompoc was not
going to be a maximum security prison any more,” Gerardo told us. As if
this cultured, disciplined man needed maximum security. We wondered how
we would endure the punishment of imprisonment in a supposedly
correctional and rehabilitative institution, where no correction or
rehabilitation takes place.

We drove from the prison to the Ontario airport and asked ourselves:
What, we asked ourselves, was a well-educated Cuban man doing in such a
place? The U.S. government knew the Cuban agents had infiltrated Cuban
exile groups that intended to cause damage to Cuba’s tourist economy.
The five were fighting terrorism and sharing information with the FBI.
They should never have been charged and now, almost 14 years of prison
later, they should at last be freed.

President Obama could and should pardon them and send them home. Cuba
has indicated it would respond by freeing Alan Gross, who worked for a
company contracted to USAID with a design to destabilize the Cuban
government and was convicted in Cuba. It’s time for President Obama to
put this issue on his agenda.

Danny Glover is an activist and actor.Saul Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLASE STAND UP plays in Portland Sept. 12, Clinton Theater and Toronto Sept. 21.

Break the Chains.info

is a news and discussion forum for supporters of political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized social prisoners, and victims of police and state intimidation.

This blog is organized and updated autonomously of the disbanded Break the Chains Prisoner Support Network formerly based in Eugene, Oregon. While this online project shares several of the same concerns as the old Break the Chains collective, no formal organization exists behind the current web presence.

"I will never surrender my pride and dignity nor allow the system to 'cut my tongue' and I will always, without fear, speak out against these war crimes and crimes against humanity, no matter if I spend the rest of my life in a prison cage, and draw my last breath of air laying down in this steel bed surrounded by razor-wire fences and cages, and its prison policies that are designed to destroy one's humanity…."